Monterey Bay’s next harvest won’t be in the fields. It’s in the data.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a far-future idea and is already reshaping agriculture, healthcare, education, and local businesses across the region. From precision irrigation on farms in the Salinas Valley to diagnostic tools in clinics, AI is becoming part of the infrastructure our communities rely on. The question is no longer whether AI will change Monterey Bay. It’s whether we help shape that change or whether it happens to us.
This urgency is real. Advances in AI are faster than most institutions can adapt. Nationwide, entire industries are being restructured around automation and machine learning. Regionally, this means that our workers, schools and small businesses face shrinking space to prepare or risk being left behind in the regions where they first started.
Preparation starts with people. Monterey Bay’s economy has always operated on adaptability, from fishing to agriculture to tourism. The same resilience must be extended to AI literacy. Community colleges, labor boards, and employers need to create training pathways that make these tools more accessible not just to engineers, but also to farmworkers, nurses, teachers, and small business owners whose jobs involve these tools.
Education must move forward just as quickly. Our schools should teach the basics of AI as a core skill, not as an elective, in the same way they once taught computer literacy. Students without AI fluency will be at a huge disadvantage in a job market that is being redefined in real time. Local school districts, in partnership with California State University Monterey Bay and community colleges, can take the lead here, but that requires sustained investment now.
Advocacy is where community and policy meet. Residents, producers, and educators must be present when state and federal AI policies are developed. Too often, technology regulations are formed in Sacramento or Washington without input from the working communities that will feel the effects first. Monterey Bay needs to organize through direct engagement with City Hall, coalitions, and legislators to ensure that AI policy reflects the realities of the region, not just Silicon Valley.
Ethics and regulation cannot be put on the back burner. As AI systems increasingly impact hiring, healthcare, and even immigration enforcement, we must demand transparency, accountability, and fairness built into these tools from the start. Responsible AI means protecting workers from unchecked surveillance, ensuring algorithms don’t covertly encode bias, and requiring human oversight when decisions impact people’s lives. Bold regulation is not anti-innovation. That’s what makes innovation reliable.
California projects that by 2030, the statewide economic impact of AI technology will be large, exceeding $400 billion, and AI is expected to impact between 1 million and 11 million jobs. However, adjustments are likely to occur with that growth.
Just a few weeks ago, California launched the California AI-Unemployment Tracker (CAIT), the first tracker in the nation to link AI exposure and unemployment insurance trends. An accompanying report prepared by researchers at the California Institute for Policy Studies found that as of May 2026, there is no evidence of a sharp increase in layoffs statewide among workers in highly exposed occupations, but early signs of disruption are emerging in certain worker groups, industries, and regions, including certain high-tech industries, and among college-educated, highly exposed workers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Monterey Bay has faced transformative moments before, and each time our strength has come from producers, educators, workers, and policymakers working together around a common future. AI is no exception. It’s not a rural problem or a technology problem. It’s a community issue, it’s a workforce issue, and it’s ultimately a question of who will shape the future of this region.
The choice before us is simple. Prepare now or catch up later. Monterey Bay has a track record of leadership, organization and resilience. What we need now is the will to act.
On September 10, nationally recognized AI leaders, policymakers, researchers, and innovators will gather for “AI and the Future of Our Region” for a half-day summit exploring how artificial intelligence will transform the future of our economy, communities, and work. For more information, please visit the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership website at https://mbep.biz/.
Tara Goraya is president and CEO of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. The Monterey Bay Economic Partnership is a multidisciplinary, member-supported nonprofit organization working at the intersection of government, community, and business to improve the economic health and quality of life of the Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz tri-county region. Mr. Goraya is a director of California Forward and a member of the California Commission on Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs. Please send any questions or comments to tgoraya@mbep.biz.
